Serbia raising incentives for hydroelectric development

A new renewable energy development plan could reward small hydroelectric development with higher incentives, HydroWorld.com has learned.

The draft regulation, called the National Action Plan for Renewable Energy (NAPRE), was presented earlier this week by Serbia's energy ministry and hopes to increase green power sources to 27% of the country's overall mix by 2020. Renewables currently account for 21% of Serbia's gross energy consumption.

NARPE would increase incentives for small hydropower projects up to 1 MW in capacity more than 40%, while also raising the capacity cap for subsidies from 10 MW to 30 MW. Subsidy rates would increase by about a third to between US$0.0975 to about $0.195 per KWh, depending on their size.